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My Envision w/ IntelliZone Geo Setup w/ TED Monitoring

Hi all,

I built a house recently and decided to go with a WaterFurnace Envision geo system (049 model).
I also opted for a 3-zone IntelliZone setup:
Main floor: 2100 sqft
Second floor: 900 sqft
Basement: 2100 sqft
RenewAire ERV
Buffer HW tank with a natural gas HWH

On top of that I have a laptop connected to a TED (electricity monitoring device) to monitor electric usage.

Things have finally calmed down from the move and build, so I thought I would offer to post some pictures of the install, describe my usage, and let people ask questions. Not sure how helpful I'll be, but I appreciate the time everyone here took to answer my questions and want to return the favor. Any interest?

With the house at rest I am .05/hr usage and with my HP running I am at .46/hr when it runs. It appears that the energy usage is about the same no matter the outside temp so the length of the unit running would be the tell all.

I'm (not) ready for a new system in the future and a ground source heat pumo is what I was looking at. What is the water furnace?

I just got my TED hooked up yesterday. Pretty cool device! When ever I turn on my remote control light fixture/ceiling fan the TED stops updating. Now that I know what causes the problem, I can work around it.

I decided to not use the software. I installed my TED on the bartop in the kitchen for all to see. The software seemed a little lacking in instructions but was merely ok in my eyes. You have to keep your computer turned on to utilize the real time logging. I wanted to save that $5 a month.

Well, I have a lot of experimenting to do with the TED. I just installed it yesterday, but I can give you an overview of my current setup as a baseline.

As I mentioned, I have three zones, the basement is unfinished, and thus turned off, so I'm really conditioning about 3000 square feet. Both the main floor and upper level are at a constant 70 degrees (24h/day). My electric rate is $.117/KW

Right now I have the TED hooked up to monitor the heating compressor only, so when the compressor is off it reads 0KW. When the compressor kicks in to first stage it reads about 2.5 - 2.6KW. That equates to about 30 cents/hour according to TED. I haven't checked it tonight to see what a stage two call draws, and I haven't had the auxiliary heat kick on at all this winter. Also, because of the way I am monitoring right now it does not account for the fact that I have the fan running constantly. Running the fan constantly to "mix the air" was recommended by my contractor.

Last billing month (Nov 22 - Dec 27) our electric bill was $295. I am trying to understand how much of that was the geo system and how much is the rest of the crazy electric crap around this place. (laptops, tv, media center, fridges/freezers) Based on some summer bills in which we used very little (if any) geo cooling, I believe about $200 of the $295 was geo. We seem to go through about $100/month in electricity without it. Keep in mind we've only been in the house for a few months, so I don't have much historic data to go on.

If that is how you are tracking the energy use I would suggest you go ahead and set up TED correctly AND set up the software quickly and see how you come out with it. The footprints software can be taught the various items in your house so it can look at and track what is running. My electric stove is tricky as is my electric dryer with the elements turning on and off quickly and often so that didn't seem to work out for me -- though i did not really give it a fair try. I know it did ok tracking my HP on/off cycles. In my system IF I ghooked it up like you have I would not be able to track the backup resistance heating since it is on a different circuit from the heat pump.

When I bought TED I also got the "Kill-A-Watt EZ" to monitor individual 110V sources. I started with one of my oldest TV's, (35" CRT) as it will be replaced with a 55" LED model next week. I also monitored the DVR as I had heard that some of the Motorola models were real big energy users, even when not turned on. The DVR/TV is almost always on, estimate annual cost $25.78 for the DVR. I'm anxious to see what the power useage will be on the new Vizio TV. I'm also getting estimates to replace my 17 year old dual split 1.5-3.5 ton air to air HP systems.

I didn't realize TED could "learn" which appliances/lights/etc. were which. My goal was to understand what portion of my electric bill is going to heat the house. I already have Footprints installed and logging to a laptop 24/7. (spend money to save money? ) The software doesn't seem very robust to me. Hopefully it'll work that way.

Yes, try it the whole house way. The software wasn't great but I did use it to see how much $$ I spent daily heating water when nobody was home. I guess I can save maybe $20 a month by adding a timer to cut off the water heater (electric resistance) during my not at home times.

If you do not like the results you can always revert back to your current hook up.

I didn't realize TED could "learn" which appliances/lights/etc. were which. My goal was to understand what portion of my electric bill is going to heat the house. I already have Footprints installed and logging to a laptop 24/7. (spend money to save money? ) The software doesn't seem very robust to me. Hopefully it'll work that way.

I'll hook it up to monitor the whole house and see what happens.

TheNuke,

What's your back-up heat for the geo, electric strips?

I'd be curious to see your monthly results on the power consumed by the compressor, and/or entire unit operation (compressor, back up heat, and fan) for a given month(s).

Also, your "base" electric load (no heating, no cooling) can be estimated by looking at your May or Sep/Oct bills....when most folks rarely run A/C or heat (depending on climate).

I have the TED too and occasionally hook it up to a specific circuit in a customer's home to guage a given hard-wired appliance's energy consumption. Nice device. I don't use the software, I just capture the total kWh over a given period and estimate from there.

As I mentioned, I have three zones, the basement is unfinished, and thus turned off, so I'm really conditioning about 3000 square feet. Both the main floor and upper level are at a constant 70 degrees (24h/day).Running the fan constantly to mix the air.

Is the HRV connected to the duct work?
Is the intellizone turned off for the basement zone or just the thermostat?